Financial Services Research Conference 2025

09.15 Registration and coffee

09.50 Opening comments from the Chair
Lauren Peel, Senior Partner, Inclusive Outcomes

10.00 Gen-AI tools for financial services: what do consumers really think?
How are people really using generative AI for financial decisions? Thinks Insight & Strategy partnered with the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum – made up of the FCA, ICO, Ofcom and CMA – to explore this over two years of qualitative and quantitative research.
Discover what consumers think about using AI for debt advice, mortgages and investments, their confidence and concerns, and what this means for firms in terms of trust, market demand and support. Gain insights into how effective regulation can enable innovation while protecting consumers in this rapidly evolving landscape.
Carol McNaughton Nicholls, Managing Partner, Thinks Insight & Strategy
Ellie Gould, Associate Director, Thinks Insight & Strategy
Andrew Smith, Head of Insights & Strategy, Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum

10.30 Panel: Exploring financial inclusion and resilience in minority communities
This lived-experience panel will explore financial inclusion, vulnerability and resilience among ethnic minority communities in the UK. Drawing on research with Fair4All Finance and the Equity in Finance network, the session will explore how individuals from diverse backgrounds and life circumstances navigate the financial system and the persistent barriers they face, including cultural exclusion, algorithmic bias and the “ethnicity premium”.
Discover the emotional and cultural dimensions of financial decision-making, and the real-world consequences of flawed credit frameworks and digital exclusion particularly for migrants and minority communities.
Chair: Dr. Kenny Imafidon MBE, Co-founder and Managing Director, ClearView Research
Panellists:
Jodie Cross, Corporate Impact and Engagement manager, Fair4All Finance
Sam Omokan, Senior Project Executive, ClearView Research and two research participants

11.00 morning refreshments

11.30 Life100+: a blueprint for how agency-client partnerships drive strategic impact
Hear Canada Life UK’s Head of Marketing and Brand and Head of Social Impact discuss with the Big Window’s Lisa Edgar, Life100+ - a bold, insight-led response to the challenge of longevity.
Examine how this 360°, three-phase programme grounded in extensive quantitative and qualitative research with consumers, employers, and financial advisers, reshaped brand and reputation strategy, as well as the UK business’ social impact strategy among other business-wide impacts of the programme. And discover how insight was embedded to drive measurable impact.
This session demonstrates how an agency-initiated idea became a business-wide driver of change and offers a powerful model for agency-client partnership in action.
Lisa Edgar, Chief Executive Officer, Big Window Consulting
In conversation with
Antoinette Lee, Head of Social Impact, Canada Life UK
Keily Vanstone, Head of Marketing, Brand and Communications, Canada Life UK

12.00 Conversational AI: the new voice of banking
Explore how AI and conversational banking are transforming personal finance experiences in everyday banking, savings and investments. Drawing on research from Lloyds Banking Group and Toluna, this session explores consumer openness to AI in banking and the differences by customer type. It also looks at the implications for trust, accessibility and inclusion.
Gain insights into the future of conversational banking and how AI can help customers do more with their money while building stronger relationships and trust with their bank.
Michael Worledge, Group Research Director, Toluna
In conversation with
Charlotte Wildgoose, Design Researcher, Lloyds Banking Group
Natasha Kapur, Design Researcher, Lloyds Banking Group

12.30 Session to be announced

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Exploring financial wellbeing with an AI Research Platform
Delve into the latest findings from Wagestream and CogCo’s Financial Wellbeing Index, which measures and tracks the financial health of the nation. Delve deeper into specific ‘customer profiles’ within the Financial Wellbeing Index, using CogCo’s AI research platform, BengoAI. Examine how this AI tool allows you to interact with customer profiles, created using a rich range of qualitative and quantitative data, so that you can build empathy with different customer groups and gain an understanding of their financial knowledge, attitudes and behaviours.
In this candid session, delegates can assess the strengths and limitations of using AI-generated customer profiles which draw from rich datasets, while considering gains from improved democratisation and more effective activation across teams.
Owain Service, CEO, CogCo
Edward Gardiner, MD, CogCo
Emily Trant, Chief Impact Officer, Wagestream

14.30 From tracking to action: evolving NFU Mutual’s sentiment tracker into a business-wide catalyst
Tracking often measures the past, but NFU Mutual and Human8 have transformed their Financial Sentiment Tracker into a catalyst for organisation-wide action. Through insights from their ‘Mutual Voice’ community, they’ve spotted emerging shifts in saving and spending behaviours, uncovered underserved audiences such as women and farmers, and shaped decisions across marketing, PR, corporate planning and training.
This session shares how the tracker evolved from a simple temperature check into an insight engine supporting timely responses, including how easing cost-of-living pressures informed sales and marketing adjustments. Gain practical lessons on taking trackers beyond reporting to drive real-time responsiveness, embed insight and meaningful impact.
Stacey Kohalny, Senior Team Director, Human8
Sarah Doody, Customer Insight Consultant, NFU Mutual

15.00 Afternoon break

15.30 How inclusive research leads to better banking for all: lessons from adults with a learning disability
This session shares findings from Project Nemo’s landmark report, created with Firefish and sponsored by Nationwide, on the financial barriers faced by people with a learning disability. It explores how banking systems exclude 1.5 million UK adults and why inclusive research and design matter.
Hear how amplifying underrepresented voices shaped the research approach, and discover practical insights showing that solutions built for the most vulnerable can improve experiences for everyone.
Consider this session a call to action for financial services to embed inclusive practices to drive broader accessibility, usability and meaningful impact for all customers.
Ali Smith, Senior Director, Firefish
Anne-Marie Gardner, Senior Director, Firefish Data
Andy Rudd, Research Manager, Nationwide Building Society

16.00 Customer immersion workshop: building a deeper understanding of vulnerability to drive cultural and commercial change
Half of UK adults have at least one vulnerability characteristic, yet many products still treat vulnerability as an afterthought.
Join Inclusive Outcomes, for a customer immersion-style workshop that will build deeper understanding of vulnerability impacts, harms and diverse needs and asks what can we do about it. Using customer films and small group discussion, delegates will explore how these insights can inform business decisions and strategies. Monzo will share how this approach – along with inclusive design practice – has been fundamental in their approach to vulnerability, and delivering good outcomes for its customers.
Lauren Peel, Senior Partner, Inclusive Outcomes
Riffat Tuffail, Vulnerability Lead, Monzo

16.45 Sponsored drinks reception